tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182505632024-03-08T05:35:14.203-06:00Telepixels - Multimedia meets GadgetryInvestigating the convergence of multimedia content on televisions and pocketable devices like Apple's iP* line (iPod, iPhone and iTouch) Sony PSP and dozens of other Windows Media compatible devices. Brought to you by the Gadget Guy - <a href="http://www.davemathews.com">Dave Mathews</a>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-51340113614876215762010-06-04T16:38:00.006-05:002010-06-15T15:26:46.948-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1270/4670268154_97c2287e14.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1270/4670268154_97c2287e14.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />To Evo or to iPhone? – That is the question…<div><br />I write this story as the iPad has shipped more than a million units and has become the fastest technology product to gross a billion dollars in sales. The next generation iPhone hardware has been leaked and software details confirm that we will finally receive support for basic multitasking under the 4.0 operating system. Hot on Apple’s heels is the competitive Google Android mobile phone software which is slowly rolling out their latest “Froyo” version 2.2. Most importantly, the brand new Sprint Evo hardware now trumps the unlocked Nexus 1 hardware platform with its next generation 4G radio and 8 Megapixel camera.</div><div><br />The smart phone space has not been this hot since the Palm Treo fought with Microsoft Windows Mobile half a decade ago. To confirm my thought, the NPD group announced that Android handsets are outselling the iPhone – no small surprise as some 60 handsets are available on 50 carriers worldwide. A stark difference from the 5-year exclusive deal that AT&T signed with Apple in 2007 for iPhone distribution in America.</div><div><br />But is the Android software ready for prime time? And is the hardware truly better? The quick answer: Maybe if you are a geek, but read on for the details. First of all, where the iPhone is “visually silent” with notifications, Android phones have a blinking light. Some have two actually; one or two at the top near the speaker as a charge and bluetooth indicator, and the Nexus 1 has a big glowing track ball that changes color upon activity such as email, SMS or applications receiving data. That’s nice if you like visual alerts and keep your phone in silent mode.</div><div><br />Whereas you “buy the capacity you want” on the iPhone, with Android, to expand storage, you can buy a large micro SD card. Their latest version 2.2 operating system will allow you to run applications from this card, rather than require them in system flash memory. This was a feat Palm could not achieve on their platform, but memory interfaces have sped up since those days.</div><div><br />For those who want to use their smart phone without charging throughout a whole day, a second battery is a must. The processors in current smart phones now reach 1GHz, matching that of your laptop from just a few years ago. This plus the wireless communication that receiving a constant barrage of GPS data, email and Twitter feeds from your social network mandate a replaceable “on the go” battery. Android phones have this feature across their multi-vendor lineup. The battery of an iPhone always lives within; although backpacks can be purchased to provide more power. Android cameras are better too, with more megapixels and a flash. The Sprint Evo phone even has a second forward facing camera for video conferencing, plus two LED flashes on the back for extra brightness.</div><div><br />That sounds like some compelling reasons to go with an Android phone, especially if you do not like the AT&T wireless network coverage, cost or new data plan; although most users will have a hard time reaching 2GB of data in a month. In the US T-Mobile offers data only “unlimited plans” and Sprint still allows for 5GB of data use in a month. Most Android phones can act as a modem for your laptop when you travel – but do not expect broadband like speeds anchoring your devices together.</div><div><br />So what’s the bad news on this front? It’s all in the interface and software. Apple has made some amazing evolutions in their user experience. Things like inertia in the menu systems, keyboards that quickly auto prompt and correct your mistakes and a general ease of use are missing from the “half iPhone’s age” Android platform.</div><div><br />After using the iPhone for a few years, I feel that the keyboard is a bit cramped and dictionary not as predictive. Thankfully because of the openness of Android, you can change out its keyboard by installing third party programs, even mimicking an iPhone keyboard, or a new sliding keyboard called Swype.</div><div><br />Android does not have as many downloadable applications as the iPhone does, and Google probably does not have your credit card on file, so buying is a bit more cumbersome. It seems that iTunes sale of 10 billion music tracks at 99-cents sets the stage for you to easily buy applications at $1.99, or increasingly $9.99 for the iPad.</div><div><br />In addition to an ease of use through a near “one-click” purchase, the iPhone changed the way carriers would allow applications on mobile phones, by allowing computer software developers to create mobile programs more akin to those on a computer than a proprietary mobile device without the usual carrier vetting process – albeit one now controlled by a mysterious black box at Apple. An interesting side note is that years ago Apple licensed the Amazon.com “one-click” patent and that play seems like it has paid for itself over the years as Apple sells more digital assets than digital devices.</div><div><br />There are now more than 100,000 iPhone applications from alarm clocks to ones that let you stream media from your home television or hard drive to anywhere in the world. These developers can write a program for any of the near 100 million iPhones and iTouch devices sold, each with identical screen resolutions, or the upcoming iPad which has a 9.3” screen, but is capable of “pixel doubling” to stretch the content. The newest iPhone screen has been examined to have a resolution near that of the iPad, but in the size similar to the prior models of iPhone.</div><div><br />Compare that with Andoid which has several vendors like Motorola, HTC and the like creating handsets which have different resolutions, screen types ranging from LCD to AMOLED, different handset buttons below the screen, and some even with joysticks and full QWERTY keyboards. Some of these older phones run different versions of the Android operating system with no ability to upgrade. This means that next generation applications will not be able to run on those slightly older platforms.</div><div><br />While the Android platform loves Flash, supports hardware acceleration and the ability to play media from nearly ANY website, Netflix and ABC have circumvented the need for Flash support on the iPhone & iPad and have created applications that allow media into the devices.<br />If you want the “full web” and are willing to put up with some software quirks, then Android is a more open platform, that you may find worth the trouble. I feel that Google will get there eventually as their software is only “half as old” as Apple’s. If you want a device that will anchor with your car, run hundreds of thousands of applications and has an extremely polished Interface, then stick with the iPhone. The next generation hardware is going to be an amazing piece of artwork and technology.</div><div><br />When speaking at Maker Faire 2010, I was asked which mobile devices I carry with me. As a technologist my answer is far too many. I tried an iPad and had to sell it due to its limitations. I prefer a Netbok running OS-X. For my pocket arsenal, I carry an iPhone for appliations and testing on a data-only plan. A Nexus 1 or Evo depending on my country that I am visiting, and my tired and true Blackberry Curve on Sprint. The 3G Blackberry Curve runs several apps, most importantly makes and takes calls, handles email faster via a single inbox than any other device above, and the battery lasts all day long. It’s just not quite as sexy!<br /></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-33135330597551682452010-04-20T17:03:00.007-05:002010-04-20T20:49:25.679-05:00The new iPhone 4th Generation has revealed itself!<br /><br />Several weeks ago, a version of the iPhone that was "just a bit different" from the 3 prior year products was found at a bar not far from the Apple Cupertino campus. This device was remotely shut down hours after it was lost, but not before the yet unseen 4.0 OS (it is available as a beta now for developers to test) was played with briefly, and the supposed owner was identified through the phone's Facebook application.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/04/500x_iphone4_01.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 345px;" src="http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/04/500x_iphone4_01.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The popular gadget blog site Gizmodo purchased the phone for $5000 from its pub crawling finder after they were unable to get Apple corporate to accept it in return, let alone get them to acknowledge that it exists via phone calls to the headquarters. We can only assume the amount of secrecy that Apple takes with products that are developed internally, and call center agents know nothing of new devices existence until the rest of the world does. These agents took the description of what was found to be a Chinese knockoff. This "rogue phone" became a nice find for Gizmodo, as their purchase has lead to massive traffic (6.55 million views as I write this) once they <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone">posted a story with full details</a> on the device on Monday April 19th, a full two months before its assumed launch of June 22nd, 2010. With years of unfettered secrecy around prior Apple product launches, this is a huge snafu for their marketing machine. Or was it? Although, it is no secret among the tech elite that a new phone is eminent this summer, and even firmware hints of a flash and other hardware leaks via software - the features of this device were a worst kept secret in the industry. In fact, Apple has launched a new device each summer since the iPhone June 2007 debut. Plus, on their earnings call today, they announced that 8.75 million iPhones were sold this quarter alone. This is a mass market device, and the technology pros will want the newest model, while the masses should be fine with what they have. As such, I do not see this premature announcement hurting the sales of units. In fact, it is getting Apple even more press in a slingshot after tremendous iPad hype.<br /><br />The new features with this fourth generation iPhone are a slimmer style (even slimmer than the first generation unit) along with a forward facing "video conferencing" camera, and flash on the photo camera on the back. It uses a new micro SIM as was first seen in the iPad 3G and perhaps has a noise canceling microphone on the top of the device. Usability features like battery life, type of processor and speed were not able to be tested, as the unit was remotely software locked by Apple. This version may be the first iPhone with the Apple owned A4 processor inside, which is what runs the speedy iPad with a compelling 12-hour battery life. With larger batteries within, we may be onto a full-day device, I consider the models sold to date to be half-day usage. Remember when your old Nokia "candy bar" phones would go a week between charges?<br /><br />Below is a link to a news segment with the Los Angeles CBS anchor David Malkof talking with me about the found iPhone and what its implecations are for the Apple Engineer, Gary Powell who seemingly lost it!<br /><br /><a href="http://cbs2.com/video/?id=132640">http://cbs2.com/video/?id=132640</a>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-30492998940245061982010-04-01T03:24:00.006-05:002010-04-14T11:32:07.651-05:00I cannot WAIT to get my new iPad.<div><br /></div><div>OK, for those of you who know me, and are astute to seen that this post was created on April Fools Day, I can just hear your chuckles now. I bet you are saying "Ha Ha Dave! You got me on this one!" But alas, I will probably buy a few. You see, I was present at the Apple launch event to cover it for G4 and back then said that the device was going to be a big fail, limited in use and will not be adopted. I even shot some YouTube HD video of my and another G4 producer's lack of love for it.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><object width="320" height="240"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oCBCmAWU-PA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oCBCmAWU-PA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="240"></embed></object></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Yet today, perhaps due to my being out at sea for three days, I am considering a different tune. I have read the <a href="http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100331/apple-ipad-review/">Walt Mossberg Wall Street Journal review</a> where he says it has lasted more than 10 hours with constant and quality use, calls it a decent consumption device for media and websites. Uncle Walt even goes so far to say that the limitations on content creation, due to its lack of USB ports and an on-screen (for the time being) keyboard are not so bothersome. I have also read <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/technology/personaltech/01pogue.html?hp">David Pogue's piece</a> for the New York Times where he saved face and wrote two reviews. One for the technology experts like myself, and one for the people who just got on Facebook in 2009. He kind of likes it too. Those stories are OK, but this one is better.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the 2010 SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, I covered a session on <a href="http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/q110-sxsw-2010-html5-video/">HTML 5 Video for Gearlive.com</a>; which supports streaming media without the requirement for Adobe Flash. The iPad and iPhone do not support this format, as Steve Jobs says that it is a processor hog, unfortunately it is seen on many websites like YouTube, Vimeo and pro-media outlets like Hulu. Newspaper websites even use the format to give some "flash" to their words. This HTML evolution should integrate its capabilities within. At the same time, Google is announcing that Flash support will be built into Chrome, their browser. It is also supported in their Android mobile phone handsets, which I have been testing successfully with the Nexus 1 Smart Phone. More on that in a subsequent post.</div><div><br /></div><div>So HTML 5 should make the iPad be a more usable media CONSUMPTION device. Accessories and hacks to Bluetooth should make it a better CREATION device. But one important thing is happening that I did not foresee due to prior stubbornness; Media sites like CBS, Hulu and New York Times are building specific applications and web sites for the iPad. This will deem the lack of Flash media support moot, but will most likely come with "premium content" pricing schemes.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to find the real reason that I am excited about the iPad; with its no-contract 3G service plan with UNLIMITED (for now anyway; lets keep it up AT&T) data plan for $29.99 a month, take a look at the episode of Cranky Geeks that I was a guest on, just one week before the unit shipped to stores and Apple fan boy's hot little hands via UPS.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ziff doesn't do embedded video, so enjoy this URL: <a href="http://www.crankygeeks.com/2010/03/episode_211_apple_ipad_details.php">http://www.crankygeeks.com/2010/03/episode_211_apple_ipad_details.php</a> You just click on it, and a page opens!</div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-54909164585284897932010-03-12T09:27:00.002-06:002010-03-12T09:39:45.888-06:00<div>Why I am finally excited about the iPad</div><div><br /></div><div>I am not a full-time iPhone user. My new friends frequently say "didn't I see you with an iPhone?" as I pull out my Blackberry. You see, I'm one of those guys that carried a flip phone and a Sidekick back in the early "black and white" smart phone days in 2003, because smart phones do not a phone make. These days I still carry two devices; a Blackberry on Sprint's 3G network as it has a real clicking keyboard, ultra fast email that I do not have to wait for and the ability to make and take calls at all of the tech conferences where the iPhone fails. The other pocket has a iPhone 3G, with a data only prepaid "Go" plan. This $20 data plan used to offer unlimited use, but now is limited to 100MB, which gets eaten up in the course of an afternoon on a high-speed data device.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now I could share a SIM between a USB broadband device, and pop that in the iPhone when I am not using the 3G modem in my laptop, but since I do not want another contract, and my friends always complain of the voice quality on the iPhone, I chose the prepaid route on that gadget. But come April, no longer. AT&T has stated they will have a no-contract unlimited 3G service plan for the iPad for $19.99 per month.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now I've touched the iPad and used it since I made my way to the iPad launch event to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/sets/72157623172577855/">take some photos</a> plus some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/gadgetgi#p/a/u/1/tS6qVu50Zdg">HD video</a> as I covered the excitement for the G4 TV network. Ultimately, here is what I think of the device - it's a first generation product that is not ready for my dollars.</div><div><br /></div><div>Check out my thoughts on this G4 TV Attack of the show Loop segment:</div><div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayerLg43925"><param name="movie" value="http://g4tv.com/lv3/43925"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://g4tv.com/lv3/43925" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="382" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><div style="margin:0;text-align:center;width:480px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#FF9B00;"><a href="http://g4tv.com/games/reviews/" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">Game Reviews</a> - <a href="http://g4tv.com/e32010" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">E3 2010</a> - <a href="http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/theloop/index.html" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">The Loop</a></div></div><div><br /></div>However, come April fools day, 2nd, 3rd - whatever. I will point my browser here, at <a href="http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/data-connect-plans.jsp">AT&T's data plan site</a> to get a iPad micro SIM, micro to standard SIM adapter, or just try linking one of my other AT&T SIMs to this new account type and watch my 3G iPhone get a new lease on its digital life. Since the iPad uses a new sized SIM card, which has standard pins, but a smaller size, you will need to fill the void in devices like the iPhone SIM slot.<div><br /></div><div>As far as the iPad, I am going to wait for the 4G version and hope that it has a forward facing camera. But I cannot WAIT for the iPad AT&T data service. Lets hope the towers do not let all of us down.</div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-10422168705792393622009-09-10T02:36:00.004-05:002009-09-10T02:42:35.310-05:00On 9/9/09 Apple had 100's of journalists and bloggers out to show us the latest iPods for the coming year. The big news is the iTouch gets the faster processor of the iPhone 3GS (but no camera or built-in mic!) and the Nano gets a video camera with H.264 recording. The compression and 16 effects built in are great, you only get 1.5 hours of record time and 7 hours of capacity on the 8GB version, so bring a charger!<br /><br />Other features are a pedometer built in that syncs to Nike+ online, an FM tuner with RDBS (station and song ID) which syncs to wishlists for tracks in iTunes and a 15 minute recording buffer for radio! It's almost like pausing via a TiVo, but you cannot save the content.<br /><br />Finally, iTunes 9 is launched with easy music and movie sharing between computers in your home, and the ability to receive additional media when you buy an album like photos, lyrics, and video clips for movies and music.<br /><br />Watch my G4TV video below for more details!<div><br /><div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayerLg41239"><param name="movie" value="http://g4tv.com/lv3/41239"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://g4tv.com/lv3/41239" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><div style="margin:0;text-align:center;width:480px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#FF9B00;"><a href="http://g4tv.com/" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">Video Game</a> - <a href="http://g4tv.com/e3" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">E3 2009</a> - <a href="http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/index.html" style="color:#FF9B00;" target="_blank">Attack of the Show</a></div></div></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-81288577625859495872009-07-21T13:22:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.117-06:00PeopleBrowsr at the TechCrunch Real-Time CrunchUp 2009<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/2Ga9hGOLyQ8' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/2Ga9hGOLyQ8'/></embed></object></p><p>Last fall my buddy Brian Solis of <a href="http://bub.blicio.us/">bub.blicio.us</A> introduced me to Jodee Rich of <a href="http://peoplebrowsr.com">peoplebrowsr.com</a> and I saw an amazingly powerful client that wrapped a unified, albeit noisy interface around all of the Web 2.0 properties. That's right, Flickr, YouTube, RSS feeds as well as Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed could all be accessed in a single dashboard.<br /><br />I was hooked on the idea, but it needed some honing to make it more usable for the non-power set. A few months of Jodee's team tirelessly working on the interface, and we debuted <a href="http://search.peoplebrowsr.com">search.peoplebrowsr.com</a> at the TechCrunch Real-Time Crunchup in July 2009.<br /><br />You can see how enthused I am over our work, in the video above. Take a look at the features, then give the service a try and let me know what you think of it!</p></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-37178562796105445632009-07-07T15:47:00.004-05:002009-07-07T16:15:26.061-05:00<div><object width="450" height="304"><param name="movie" value="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/9995"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/9995" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="450" height="304"></embed></object>During the 2009 South by Southwest, I participated in what we had originally believed to be a private screening of Bruno. Instead of a showing of the entire film, we were treated to a dozen rough edits and clips of the movie that were used during its production to gauge audience response; some of these were eventually included in the trailers such as the one above. I has happy to see the obviously photoshopped photo, in which his adopted baby is covered in bees, showcasing Bruno's beekeeping hobby. This alone is absurd, along with naming his son the "traditional African name of OJ," demonstrates how twisted and elaborately thought out Cohen's comedy is.<br /><br />Sacha Baron Cohen has clearly and intelligently contemplated his audience's reactions to his actions, and will once again earn him the acclaim and more which he enjoyed with is 2006 film, Borat. It is safe to say that his newest endeavor should not have worked based upon knowledge of his previous success.<br /><br />The clips I saw at South by Southwest were jaw-droppingly hilarious and I honestly, was shocked to behold how once again, people fell right into his trap. Thanks to his over the top deadpan delivery and this unsuspecting subjects' reactions, his painstaking preparation, lightening fast responses, transform Cohen's Bruno into a veritable comedy. Whereas The Office is able to shock and awe you with highly scripted characters performing absurd antics, Cohen is able to achieve this with just a few people (himself and the producers off-camera) in the know.<br /><br />Of course I know that editing and post-production can help make even reality TV funny, but considering this movie will have some modified context, it will still blow your mind. It is all about the subtle details too, not just blatant comments. Notice the words on the shirt of the baby who he received in exchange for an iPod in the clip above.<br /><br />I cannot wait to see his custom Vespa (OK, so it's just the seat cover) with "the baby on the handlebars." Obviously that near accident with the car didn't happen with the baby on board. As I guy born and raised in the Midwest, he took liberties with my people and that's OK by me. Lets see what kind of lawsuits he gets into this time over their own embarrassment.<br /><br />People need to take things they see and hear with a grain of salt and call others out in real-time on the absurdity. I cannot wait to see this movie in full.<br /><br />Nice work "Bruno" - what I have seen so far rocks my world!</p></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-71362742604686970122009-06-22T18:51:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.128-06:00Topgear from the mouths of children!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><p><object height='350' width='425'><param value='http://youtube.com/v/WVCUXnk3SSo' name='movie'/><embed height='350' width='425' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://youtube.com/v/WVCUXnk3SSo'/></object></p><p>Top Gear season 13 is on the air again from BBC 2 in the UK and BBC America; if you don't have those, it can be found on the torrents of course. Check out this 30 second trailer from BBC showing what young Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hamster, I mean Hammond were like as dreaming children.<br /><br />Also, you'll see a guest appearance from young "big Stig" (from the America South episode) or maybe he was just a chubby child...<br /><br />Even if you don't like cars, this is quite an entertaining show to watch!</p></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-79780178551424294172009-01-21T15:40:00.000-06:002009-11-30T15:01:16.138-06:00Tiger Direct PC Build competition at CES 2009Last year I was invited by the Max Borges Agency to attend their Tiger Direct/CompUSA (they bought the trademark and domain name) PC building competition with many of my industry buddies in television, print and online media. Jim Louderback from PC Magazine and Patrick Norton (now at Revision 3,) Tom Merritt from CNET and my old buddy Al Hernandez from Fox news were worthy competitors, along with the some 30 techsperts.<div><br /></div><div>In 2008, my tower PC was built in lightning time, then I booted up Windows Vista. This was my achilles heel. The box was supposed to grab an IP address then ping a server, with sweet victory mine. What wasn't worthy was my installation of Windows Vista. It did not see the wireless adapter correctly, and therefor did not attach to the router and grab and IP. A quick reboot found the adapter and attached, but not before a hot-on-my-heels competitor pinged the server before me!</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2009 it was supposed to be different. I was going to take the championship and donate $10k to my charity. But with the constant change in schedules that make up CES, I was unable to make it to the race in time; due to a last minute request for me to demonstrate the G4 TV "Best of the Best" winning products to the Chairmen of the major cable networks. Their demo took priority before the contest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fortunately I did make it over at the end, and my buddy Al won first place. Alison Haislip had fun with getting everyone psyched out over my PC building skills, and I was able to make an appearance, in the end. I guess he ended up with the big check AND the cheerleaders. Enjoy!</div><div><br /><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/36028"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/36028" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-23598721359927483682009-01-21T15:14:00.005-06:002009-01-21T15:25:40.101-06:00Panasonic CES 2009 Thin was in...<div><br /></div><div>At last years CES, Panasonic had the talk of the show; a 150" plasma that matched the yearling weight of a Jersey cow (that's 770 pounds for you non-diary folk.) Now I doubt any of my walls could hold that screen in place, but maybe I could replace a window with it.</div><div><br /></div><div>This year thin was in, and that TV was shunned to a room at the back of the booth, next to the 3D screens they have created. Since I am personally not into 3D displays, as they typically require silly colored or LCD shutter glasses, and we cannot show that off on our standard definition broadcast, I stuck with covering the things that Panasonic is known for - great cameras and displays.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the clip showing their 1/3 inch plasma, 1080p HDC-HS300 Camcorder and Viera Networked plasma screens. You may be able to notice the dry air of the Las Vegas desert and hotels was taking a toll on my voice... I sound a bit scratchy!</div><div><br /><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/36006"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/36006" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-34087168726556271642009-01-14T02:12:00.005-06:002009-01-20T14:08:42.174-06:00CES 2009 Best Of from G4 TV<div><br /></div><div>Another day has passed since returning from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and my dry throat and irritated vocal chords are nearly recovered enough to return my normal voice. We showcased 100's of products live and you can replay them until your mouse breaks from <a href="http://G4TV.com/CES">G4TV.com/CES</a> at your leisure.</div><div><br /></div><div>For those of you in a hurry however, the other hosts and I gave a rundown at the end of our six hours of broadcasting on what are our favorite items that launched at this years show. Here's the clip. Enjoy!</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:13px;"><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/36020"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/36020" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></span><br /></div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-45739739008380733182008-12-27T18:06:00.000-06:002009-11-30T15:01:16.148-06:00Backup Frequently and Often<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/3141923735/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/3141923735_5448d9de81_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style=" margin-top: 0px;font-size:0.9em;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/3141923735/">Seagate_FA_Go_silver_dock</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/gadge/">gadgetgy</a>. </span></div>Since my first computer with dual 83K (that’s Kilobytes) floppies, which were great for text, the multimedia computing age has made our storage requirements grow exponentially. We literally store gigabytes of personal content like photos and documents, which have personal value, as well as paid digital media which can be expensive to download and collect. This data on the internal hard drive in our computers is a ticking time-bomb that can carry our precious media away once it starts clicking like a popcorn maker that only Orville Redenbacher would appreciate.<div><br />Any storage media is susceptible to mechanical or electronic failure before a device’s lifetime is extinguished; the problem with hard drives is that you only know when it is about to give up its ghost when it is too late. Recovering this data can involve luck or expensive data recovery services.</div><div><br />For this reason, I say backup your important data in many places, and often. The best form of backup is with a central device on your network, such as a connected network hub such as Apple’s Airport Extreme, or a Linksys USB sharing device or router for Windows users. I prefer these methods over all-in-one router and storage device like the Apple Time Capsule, which includes 500GB or 1TB internal drive options. This is because the Time Capsule has a lot of technology under the hood, and running all of that creates heat. Heat and spinning platters of a hard disk can create a cascade of errors like chip failure or thermal issues when reading and writing to the drive itself. </div><div><br />External hard drives can run a bit cooler outside of a computer, which can help with a longer lifespan of the bearings and head motors, as they can see less heat. With these, you will want to keep the drive upright, out of the sun and with enough airspace around it.</div><div><br />Do it your-self fans will love FreeNAS which allows an old PC or laptop to run a free Linux based operating system as a backup server on your network. I have actually used FreeNAS to recover NTFS hardware based RAID partitions that Windows Servers would no longer mount and access! RAID is the ultimate in backup as many drives are spanned together into one single volume, and data is redundantly placed across these drives. This technology is cumbersome to setup and rebuild, but the external drive chassis by Drobo has automated this capability and is expensive, but very powerful. If you go this route, look for automated software that can run on your laptop and desktop computers to automatically backup their data on the LAN, like Apple Time Machine. See my post here on the <a href="http://www.techtalkback.com/2008/03/time-machine-to-airport-extreme-router.html">Airport Extreme Router configuration!</a></div><div><br />Here are the things you need to look for in a backup external hard drive:<br />1. Warranty: First and foremost a 1-year guarantee won’t cut it. Go for 5-years, and three is all right.<br />2. Portability: Laptop based 2.5” external drives require no power or lugging of an AC adapter. With this portability, come smaller capacities of 500MB and slower rotational speeds of 5400 RPM, but you will be able to easily bring these on the road with you. The desktop 3.5” sized USB drives hold up to 1.5 Terabytes as I write this, and spin faster at 7200 RPM, but require a power brick and are 100% (or more) larger in physical size.<br />3. Speed – USB will be most compatible with devices like the new Macbook; which removed all other data ports, but if you store movies or shoot 12-megapixel photos, then you will want to find a drive that includes firewire 400 (traditional) and 800 (high-speed but downward compatible) as well as eSATA which is the fastest external interface currently known to man.</div><div><br />My favorite drives these days are the Seagate FreeAgent line. They max-out my three requirements above, sport a 5-year warranty, a choice of 2.5” and 3.5” sizes (get the big one for home and the little one for on the go!) and have fast interfaces. Their portable 2.5” Go series drives come in a PC version with a USB 2.0 port, and a Mac version (my favorite) which adds firewire and includes all of the cables for USB, Firewire 400 and 800 and a neat drive dock, plus these cables are “thick” and great quality with nice strain-reliefs built in. With the FreeAgent Desk USB is standard, but drives with Firewire and eSATA are available in up to 1.5TB capacities.</div><div><br />The drives have a neat industrial design, can stand on their edge perpendicularly for more airflow or lie horizontally, and the portable models have a neat silicone like bottom that may just keep them from flying off your desk or even out of your bag. The tops have an aluminum panel which works to dissipate heat and just plain looks cool, as long as it doesn't get scratched.</div><div><br />So there you go. You have data. It is important. Now get an external drive and back it up. Remember to store drives at different locations geographically if the data is extremely important. You do not want a natural disaster ruining your original and backups if they are all in one location. Just make sure you buy a quality drive! </div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-69911625842580241732008-09-18T03:25:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.160-06:00Calacanis and Arrington Pups at TC50<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/2840469764/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2840469764_d5f964c31c_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a> <br /> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/2840469764/">Calacanis Pups at TC50</a> <br /> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/gadge/">gadgetgy</a>. </span></div>Last week had non-stop events in San Francisco, TechCrunch 50 (TC50), Apple's Lets Rock announcement and CTIA took my days, and the parties took over the nights. The dust has settled this week and I wanted to share my thoughts of the event. I saw a lot of stuff, and below is a sample of the good and bad that resonated with me.<br /><br />On the first day of TC50, there was no wireless Internet access, which I actually liked. Having been to events with full-speed unadulterated Internet access like Demo, a few Gnomedexes and the Web2.0 conferences, and actually presenting at many events, it is quite annoying to speak at people gazing into their laptops. While many are tweeting your moments of awesomeness (like twitter.com/dacort/statuses/896814882 this) it's hard to have a connection with your audience when a laptop acts as a physical wall in front of your would-be engaged audience. Thankfully, a bit of off the cuff humor or a quick roll through a slide deck (as performed by Jeremy Toeman bugblogger.com/author/jeremy-toeman/) can force people to be engaged.<br /><br />After a slow (read boring) start from Ashton Kutcher and his www.BlahGirls.com site - which I thought was for kids, but it's PG-13, the content at TC50 became more and more interesting. It was cool to see Marissa Mayer show Google's indexing (read scanning) of newspapers and the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and hot-linking on their scans of the printed page. You can read about the Archived Search paper project here: news.google.com/archivesearch/partner.html<br /><br />I thought Yammer - www.yammer.com/ which is twitter for corporations was as pointless as twitter for consumers (disclosure: I reluctantly tweet myself) and could kill productivity faster than corporate instant messaging and email already do. The "only when necessary consumer" in me loved the idea of OpenTrace - opentrace.org/ which is a way to see the environmental impact that a product has from its creation. Microsoft's Marc Smith tried this with bar code reading Pocket PC's back in the days of Aura (now closed) but it never "really" launched.<br /><br />I can't believe that OtherInbox.com got such a great response considering their methods are obvious to tech-know-how-folk who run their own domains, or one of the 26 million people who use gmail. You see, those of us with our own domain, like www.davemathews.com can create a "wildcard" address scheme where anythingyouwrite at davemathews.com can come to one in-box. If someone (like Hertz Gold membership in my case) had their database of email addresses hijacked, I could turn off the address that I used by pointing it at a "blacklisted" or spam name that was created later. Gmail users can add a +uniquename to their gmail user name (before the @ sign - like dave+hertzgold@gmail.com and you can see who is spamming you, and create a filter to move them away from your inbox. I do like their ability for them to automatically "folder" a "user name" so you can send everything for your "latrip@otherinbox.com" and have a single click of a folder to see your flights, hotels or tickets easily. Their truly unique feature is a daily "snapshot" that they can send to your primary email address, to let you know what came into your other inbox that day. Think of it as a peep-hole to see if you need to check that other box. That is smart.<br /><br />It seems as the stuff going on at Demo day one was more interesting to me than the TC50 day one. But that changed on day two the TC50. Unfortunately I was not able to attend either of those conferences as the G4 network had me cover the Apple Lets Rock event. Which was interesting, albeit evolutionary, not revolutionary. You can catch the fun that we had over there; here: www.telepixels.com/2008/09/ipod-nano-4g-and-itouch-2-along-with.html <br /><br />Even though I wasn't present for their pitch, I did order the gadget from www.fitbit.com - I am more interested about what this will do to register my (lack of?) sleeping patterns than how far I run around the city during the day. Lets hope this hardware gets open sourced for other modules and capabilities. I also watched the demo from www.Tonchidot.com in awe. Their software uses GPS and WiFi location sniffing to overlay user submitted data on the top of video seen by the iPhone camera. Although it is a demo and may prove to be difficult to execute in the real world, it showed augmented reality - something that I worked on and dreamed of when I developed the CueCat barcode reader. Theirs was in a 3D space, which made it almost magical. Lets hope they create a database structure that can live up to its promise, without being too ambiguous. The guys from T9, the global standard in "touch once" texting software for numeric (read: non smart) mobile phones showed their Swype text input for touch screens. You can run this software on your Windows mobile device, by going to www.forwordinput.com if you still use one of those phones. Yeah, I didn't think so.<br /><br />On Wednesday the Internet was flowing through the TC50 air at the pace of the drip on that sink that you always meant to fix. Twitters mobile site worked well; on your laptop. And that was good enough for me. I was most interested in www.TrueCar.com which uses actual sales data from lenders, insurance companies and god knows who else to tell you what others are paying for their new automobiles. This is an interesting service as the automotive business is never as cut and dry as you would expect a commodity product to be. Caveat Emptor!<br /><br />The guys from www.bojam.com showed a collaborative music site, like Apple's Garage Band but with a Web 2.0 user generated flair. You can upload your own beats, loops or tracks and let other musicians contribute to a final song, or use your beats in theirs. What happened to musicians finding each other on Craigs List? This site tears down geographical boundaries, which should give an interesting spin to concerts. I can just see it now, a live conference concert via iChat!<br /><br />Back on the "what's old is new" tip, www.GoodGuide.com gives users access to health and other environmental impacts that products have and reports them to consumers. Again this is a take on Microsoft Aura in a Web 2.0 world. Oh, and a bar code will trigger a users input from a mobile phone in the near future - how novel. With 61,000 entries so far, and 200 data sources polled for information on these products, it may just help you to buy something that is "greener" than not, if you stop and take the time to check.<br /><br />So there you have it. A quick look at the TechCrunch 50 presenters that I found interesting and gauche. By the way, as much as I didn't think so upon my seeing them online, the Calacanis and Arrington dogs were kind of cute in person. Name badges and all...<br clear="all" />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-23603142542201273042008-09-11T16:41:00.004-05:002008-09-11T16:47:37.838-05:00iPod Nano 4G and iTouch 2 along with iTunes 8.0 and the Genius Feature<br /><br />G4 sent me off to the Apple Lets Rock event and we put together a quick package showing you what's up with the new Apple "back to shopping season" announcements. The details on Nano (4th generation) pricing (8GB for $149 and 16GB for $199) and the iTouch 2 (8GB for $229, 16GB for $299 and 32GB for $399) and what all they now do are within the video clip.<br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br /><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/28481" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/28481" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-35545522839874714492008-09-10T11:22:00.002-05:002008-09-10T16:18:04.696-05:00Apple - Lets Rock 4G Nano and iTouch 2 launch<br /><br />The G4 TV guys asked me to help them cover the launch of Apple's latest Nano and the iTouch take two during their fall 2008 "back to shopping event." It was a cool event where Sir Jobs spoke, and I <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/sets/72157607221370765/">posted a bunch of photos on Flickr</a> of what I saw in the press room. <br /><br />I think that the Nano is back to the right "form factor" that it should stay in. I hated the stubby one, it was just too hard to use the wheel to navigate with it. I like that they included an accelerometer in it as well. The "shake to shuffle" feature is gimmicky, but clever. I expect more applications with it in the future. The new headphones with a mic (for voice recording) and wired remote control will work with the Nano out of the box.<br /><br />As a user of the first generation iTouch, I really like the price drop on the current line. The cosmetic changes mimic that of the iPhone 3G, with a rounded back. The built-in Nike+iPod receiver is cool, but the real news is the built in speaker for casual games and personal listening along with its ability to use a mic on the Apple $29 and $79 headphones, which both include an inline remote control for tracks and volume. There is no voice recorder on the iTouch, but third parties have created this software.<br /><br />Why does this excite me? Well, I cannot wait to play with some TRUE VoIP applications or even Skype with the new iTouch. This could really become something if muni-wifi comes into play and could turn the iTouch into a great free communication device, like when <a href="http://www.techtalkback.com/2008/08/iphone-vs-blackberry-free-html-email.html">I used it in Europe instead of an iPhone</a> which would cost much more due to data roaming rates.<br /><br />Take a look at the loop segment I did with the guys from G4 TV via a fiber link from San Francisco, back to their studios in LA.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/28455" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/28455" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-7649946951007795502008-08-21T22:23:00.004-05:002008-08-21T22:51:30.936-05:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT-raEa3cY5QcwcuBfFxO8qconIaj5d3I6ihY-42tVHnRbygaZM6_MR_1DdwnSo-N6SiEAG0dU80UJa_Adp1fp3hZivfENNrem6baP2VDoPmRbjps6qTTA22RqiloDtRJSubUi/s1600-h/Picture+2.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT-raEa3cY5QcwcuBfFxO8qconIaj5d3I6ihY-42tVHnRbygaZM6_MR_1DdwnSo-N6SiEAG0dU80UJa_Adp1fp3hZivfENNrem6baP2VDoPmRbjps6qTTA22RqiloDtRJSubUi/s320/Picture+2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5237177946929969330" /></a><br />I hate it when my worlds collide, and the weekend of August 22, 2008 is one such time when my work and pleasure (of all things musical) are conflicting with one another. You see my buddy <a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris Pirillo</a> is hosting <a href="http://www.gnomedex.com/schedule/">Gnomedex 08</a> in Seattle and I haven't been to one of his conferences in a long time. At this show, I'm <a href="http://www.gnomedex.com/speaker-profile-dave-mathews/">going to talk about</a> the open source software <a href="http://boxee.tv/">boxee.tv</a>, our social media center. Oh and my buddy Jeremy Toeman is going to <a href="http://www.gnomedex.com/speaker-profile-jeremy-toeman/">talk about the killer open source hardware</a>, Bug Labs. But, on this very same weekend, there is a HUGE three-day concert, <a href="http://www.outsidelandsfest.com/">Outside Lands Festival</a> in Golden Gate Park. What's a guy or gal to do? Well, stream the one you are not going to, of course!<br /><br />The Outside Lands Festival is getting their stream on through <a href="http://www.istreamplanet.com/CurrentEvents.aspx">iStreamPlanet</a> and you can find the feed within the <a href="http://attblueroom.com/music/Outside-Lands-Music-Festival/more-information.php">AT&T Blue Room</a> Fear not, Mac users, as you can still get in on the action too, if you head to this webpage and <a href="http://www.attblueroom.com/help/mac.php">follow the instructions</a> that Blue Room put together.<br /><br />Chris will be using his favorite 24-hour selfcasting service, U-Stream and have the show live on the <a href="http://www.gnomedex.com/">gnomedex.com</a> website (right now the video is on the lower right hand corner, and is showing their pre-party that I cannot attend, because I am blogging. Oh, and I'm not in Seattle yet.<br /><br />So if you are stuck at home these weekend, and want to see what is going on in the West coast(s), take a look at these feeds on your PC!<br /><br />Gnomedex 2008 - Live stream: <a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/live/">chris.pirillo.com/live/</a><br />Outside Lands Festival 2008 - Live stream: <a href="http://www.attblueroom.com/music/">Outside Lands Festival</a>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-9362376995020946432008-08-19T23:49:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.170-06:00iPhone vs Blackberry FREE HTML email<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://flickr.com/photos/gadge/2574032518/in/photostream/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3192/2574032518_50bdb1dc5a_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139); text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></div>When I went to Europe this summer, two weeks before the new iPhone came out, I had to fight myself from buying the original iPhone before the new "3Jesus phone" was released upon my return. You see, as a Sprint cellular user, I am unable to use my 3G CDMA phone in Europe, because they do not support the network nor frequencies that we do in the US. For my mobile communications instead, I bought an iTouch and ran the iPhone 1.1.4 software on it, using WiFi hot-spots rather than the 2.5G EDGE cellular network. This mean that I had no roaming fees for data, which saved me buckets of money. The setup worked perfectly, although there were a few instances that I had to walk around more than I would have liked "dousing" for open WiFi. However, iPhone applications like eMail, Google Maps (with Skyhook WiFi location) and jailbroken applications like Twitteriffic all worked fine within open hotspots. The location finding via WiFi was spot-on and a real treat to have when I got lost in Amsterdam.<br /><br />The thing that I really liked about my virtual iPhone, I mean iTouch, was that it was a wonderful media and information consumption device. "Flicking through" weather updates, web pages and even music (gasp!) was a deeee-light. But, trying to tap-tap away on a glass touch-screen for a twitter update, or worse yet an email, was a time-consuming and error ridden experience.<br /><br />This European vacation with the iTouch convinced me that I was not going to buy an iPhone 3G (with what I also consider a terrible AT&T data and voice plan) upon my return to the States. But another phone had piqued my interest - the Blackberry 8330, another 3G device on Sprint and Verizon networks. As a long-standing member of Sprint's "All You can Eat" plan, now at $99/month, I was happy with the network, despite its lack of global coverage.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://flickr.com/photos/gadge/2780450562/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/2780450562_652be1242f_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The Blackberry is no stranger to my pocket gadget arsenal, as I have had a couple in the past, but they were now down to 4 oz, and nearly half the thickness of my 3G Treo 755p. But one feature was really lacking on the Blackberry - its lack of HTML email support. I fell in love with the hardware however and made the leap, figuring that third party applications would provide the feature I missed, yet all fell short. Mail load times were longer, obtrusive messages popped up, and the font support didn't mimic the factory settings. You could tell this was an add-on, and if you installed it and can't figure out how to remove it, just look for SmartView within the Add/Remove Applications icon on the Blackberry Desktop software - and un-check it. Once I read about the 4.5 client software update, with the 2.5 Blackberry Internet Service upgrades that were coming to the carriers I hoped this could be my ideal solution.<br /><br />As I am not one to wait for Sprint to release "blessed" firmware, I monitored the forums and checked others, who were less dependent on their mobile phones, that tested the "buried 4.5 firmware" on the Blackberry web site. A few catastrophes were debugged, and by deleting the vendor.xml file from the installation package which dropped it within the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research in Motion\AppLoader then by running the 4.5 Desktop Manager, all of the Curve (83XX) model phones could be upgraded to the latest and greatest, with built-in HTML email support. Find your model of Curve's firmware and instructions here: <a href="http://forums.crackberry.com/f52/">http://forums.crackberry.com/f52/</a><br /><br />After upgrading both an AT&T and Sprint Blackberry Curve without fail, I was still unable to get my HTML email from Gmail and my hosted domains. Turns out, the profiles (with their unique capabilities) are sent down from the Blackberry Internet Server (BIS) which must be accessed by going to yourcarrier.blackberry.com (<a href="http://sprint.blackberry.com/">sprint.blackberry.com</a> in my case) then after logging in, delete all of your current email addresses, and finally re-instate them. After the "Congratulations" email (this feat, I hardly consider congratulatory) your addresses will default to receiving HTML email and automatically load images. These features can be turned back off by clicking on the Blackberry button while in the message list view, rolling down to options, clicking on Email Settings, then disabling HTML or Image auto-load for each of your configured accounts. You may want to stop loading images if you are on 2.5G networks, but the HTML color, font and other settings will be beneficial to you. Corporate users with Exchange servers will have other settings that I am not privy to in my installation. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://flickr.com/photos/gadge/2780450568/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/2780450568_aa404a03bf_o.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Oh, and Gmail users who do not want to get a copy of their own email just sent from a Blackberry to hit them again when they press send, use this fix to create a from-address filter of your own address: <a href="http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB10332&sliceId=SAL_Public&dialogID=70914178&stateId=0%200%2037674723">Removing duplicate or email echos from Gmail accounts.</a><div><br /><br />So for the next year or so, or until Android, some other hot phone, or Apple fixes all of their iPhone bugs (like this tweet from my buddy Brian Solis - <a href="http://twitter.com/briansolis/statuses/892838871">http://twitter.com/briansolis/</a>) I have the perfect phone for "producing content." Something I like to do. Like this how-to story for you.</div>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-66157292778815310332008-08-16T15:59:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.183-06:00Defcon 16 - 2008 CoverageThere is no worse place to be than the city of Las Vegas in the summer. Yet, for years my brother and I have made our trek there for his birthday weekend and the conference that makes you want to never turn on your laptop, Defcon. This year is the 16th annual security conference and we learned about cable modem vulnerabilities, lock picking (a show favorite) and how to instantly take over an Internet kiosk via multiple vulnerabilities.<br /><br />A ran into my friends at G4 TV while I was there, and got them hooked up with my buddies Zoz and Joe Grand from the new Discovery Channel show Prototype This! Take a look at the segment here and watch when I talk about the Wall of Sheep.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/27771" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/27771" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true"></object></embed>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-69470428617834460632008-08-09T01:54:00.002-05:002008-08-09T01:56:34.213-05:00<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/2746260704/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/2746260704_90efbe8282_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/2746260704/">Dave Mathews on DL.TV</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/gadge/">gadgetgy</a></span></div>My buddy Robert Heron had me on his DL.TV show to talk about what it is like to be an inventor and to show my latest business endeavor, boxee.tv - a social media player. We got into what makes a good product, how to protect your invention with patents and an overview of how boxee can make your media better. It's a great episode! <a href="http://dl.tv/2008/08/dltv_ep_244_gadget_guy_dave_ma_1.php">Take a look at show #244!</a><br clear="all" />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-25798715193849262752008-08-06T13:01:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.196-06:00Lock down your Facebook or Myspace profile<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2474958544_f34db9f9e6.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2474958544_f34db9f9e6.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />The amount of "transparency" people have which means the amount of seemingly private information that people put on the Internet these days amazes me. Wether it is photos on sharing sites like Flickr, or too much information on MySpace and Facebook, this could come back to haunt you or otherwise make you need to explain your life to a higher power. I'm not talking about the pearly gates either.<br /><br />I wrote a story for Young Money, a magazine that hits a couple dozen college campuses on <a href="http://youngmoney.com/technology/internet/278">how to lock down your profile</a> within the most popular social networking sites, so you do not have to worry about accepting your boss as a "friend" once they find out about Facebook.<br /><br />If you have not locked down your profile, go do it now. Oh, and good luck getting the data which Yahoo and Google indexed already out of those search engines. The Internet is a house of cards, just waiting to tumble.<br /><br />P.S. The endearing photo is of my G4TV host buddy Olivia Munn. I'm sure it was just pre-show nerves or something.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-56562021305698160222008-07-23T20:00:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.206-06:00Cranky Geeks with iPhone 3G and more...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.crankygeeks.com/images/hed_crankygeeks_blog.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.crankygeeks.com/images/hed_crankygeeks_blog.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I made another appearance on Cranky Geeks in the hot (yeah right) July summer of San Francisco, on episode 125. We spoke about the iPhone and its revolutionary app store; which is the real story of the 3G iPhone, not the 3G which brings talk time from 10 hours to 5 hours. The worlds oldest blogger at 108 years old (someone else typed for her) passed away and newsgroup sites are having a problem with porn images.<br /><br />But that's enough about the episode, <a href="http://www.crankygeeks.com/2008/07/episode_125_iphone_glitches_ic.php">click here to watch</a> it then click the iPhone image in the next window!Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-36678477944937708282008-07-23T00:52:00.007-05:002008-07-23T01:21:20.177-05:00Because boxee is a new type of software program, unlike traditional software as it utilizes a 10-foot user interface like a TiVo but with social capabilities, I put together a 4 and a half minute walk-through video. This shows you how navigate through the interface (by the way, we launched the Linux version today at <a href="http://boxee.tv/">boxee.tv</a>!) You don't use a mouse with boxee, just your keyboard if you are on a laptop, or remote control (the Apple remote or Media Center version on Windows boxes works great) to navigate around. This makes things much easier than "pointing and clicking" from across the room and as a bonus, it gets rid of that annoying mouse arrow on top of your media. This software is best used is when you connect a computer to your wide-screen TV and enjoy media from your couch!<br /><br />Check out the video below to see how to get the most out of boxee. Now this isn't the "teaser video" as to why you would want to use boxee, as that is coming later... This is something for our alpha users to view while they are downloading the application, to get a little more educated on how to use it once installed...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cobject%20width=" height="344"></a><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MwQG-4kT7FE&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MwQG-4kT7FE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-21643942694747668552008-06-16T19:23:00.007-05:002008-12-10T02:42:19.597-06:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbPGwB-4lGufS_4aImRRwINwwK9_TpwExb4L8EfHM7dWPVEKxiw4YFs_xhJqsFZkQdEEL3cgNlnpaS49cEBZuFr0vmRx6-ZHJDWdMyoPdxu4nfK4nKIn-6a8t3666iAZiu0hM/s1600-h/boxee+with+my+music.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbPGwB-4lGufS_4aImRRwINwwK9_TpwExb4L8EfHM7dWPVEKxiw4YFs_xhJqsFZkQdEEL3cgNlnpaS49cEBZuFr0vmRx6-ZHJDWdMyoPdxu4nfK4nKIn-6a8t3666iAZiu0hM/s320/boxee+with+my+music.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212649294989315362" /></a><br />Humans are inherently collectors. House sizes in America are huge today compared to what our grandparents owned, and we are stuffing them to the brink of explosion with "stuff." I try to live a lean "smart stuff life" but with a couple three terabytes of hard drives and RAID arrays around, I have found that I collect data. Lots of huge files like music (albums not just tracks) remixes that can be hours long and increasingly movies ripped and compressed with Divx from my DVD collection.<br /><br />Managing this was a pain, and consuming was even harder as I had several appliances to help do so. My original Xbox running XBMC was good, but that hardware was getting rusty with no HDTV capabilities. The AudioTron from Turtle Beach did music really well but maxed out when I hit 32k songs 5-years ago. My Roku HD-1000 did MPEG2 movies and photos but the UI was cumbersome, if not abysmal. My different trials of firmware for the Xbox360 along with a NAS networked PC running Transcode 360 did other file types OK, but that's two full PC's to feed one living room media habit! Worst of all, this meant that I needed three different devices, with different UI's and input sources on the TV and amplifier. The geek acceptance factor (let alone what I speak of as the WAF - or wife acceptance factor) were reaching all-time lows.<br /><br />What is my solution for the "all format/both local and online media player" today? It's <a href="http://www.boxee.tv"> boxee.tv</a> - I've been working with the amazing team of developers (all who have funny accents from Israel) since the beginning of 2008 and am proud of their technical prowess and achievements in what I think is the ultimate 10-foot user interface for the television. This is software that begs to be put on the big-screen, with just a cheap DVI or HDMI cable be from your computer to control the media that you, like most others, are collecting.<br /><br />The software needs to be seen to believed, and if you have a Mac, or Linux computer, you can get in on our Alpha test. I gotta say, the software feels more like Beta to me, as I've been watching less of my two TiVo HD boxes (both Sat and cable fed) and more of online over the top video and local content on my Mac Mini connected to the same TV as the TiVos.<br /><br />If you are more of a music and photo collector with few movie rips, which is understandable, still give boxee a try - the team has put thousands of videos available for streaming or legal downloading within the rich user interface. You can ease your way into video collecting without fear of piracy. I crack up at the videos that are available and never would have found them without the comfort of browsing available online media from my couch!Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-18683873136773230672008-05-23T12:32:00.006-05:002008-05-23T12:57:14.418-05:00At the 2008 Consumer Electronics show, we got ahold of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA?ie=UTF8&tag=gadgetguydavemat&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000FI73MA">Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device</a>, for a quick overview on G4 TV. It is much lighter and thinner than I expected and while some people miss the fact that it has no power-hungry WiFi, I like that it is always connected over a cellular network (in the USA only) for e-books and RSS feeds. It even has capabilities to get e-copies of the NYT and WSJ!<br /><br />Here are Olivia Munn and the Gadget Guy going over the Kindle and figuring out how she would use it in her home...<br /><br /><object width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayer"><param name="movie" value="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/19735" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.g4tv.com/lv3/19735" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="418" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="false"></embed></object><br /><br /><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=gadgetguydavemat&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000GFK7L6&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr&nou=1" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=gadgetguydavemat&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000FI73MA&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr&nou=1" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=gadgetguydavemat&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000FDJ0FS&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr&nou=1" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250563.post-13644723757640510382008-05-05T20:40:00.000-05:002009-11-30T15:01:16.214-06:00Fake Steve Jobs - Daniel Lyons @ Web2.0<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/2467946641/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2158/2467946641_b92d7ae484_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a> <br /> <span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadge/2467946641/">Fake Steve Jobs - Daniel Lyons @ Web2.0</a> <br /> Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/gadge/">gadget</a>. </span></div>It looks as if all of my stories covering the O'Reilly Web 2.0 conference have been posted to the PC Magazine world... Here's a recap:<br /><br />Marc Andreessen talks about what it was like in the early days of creating the browser at the University of Illinois then Netscape and what he is currently doing with the white label social networking site Ning. <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2288828,00.asp">http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2288828,00.asp</a><br /><br />Gear Log picked my story on Dash, the in-car GPS with WiFi and cellular wide area networking connectivity. It's got the whole "crowdsourcing" automatic web2.0 thing figured out! <a href="http://www.gearlog.com/2008/04/dash_gps_owners_search_for_sta.php">http://www.gearlog.com/2008/04/dash_gps_owners_search_for_sta.php</a><br /><br />Finally, my buddy David Spark did a little Q&A with yours truly and I pontificate on what the future of social networking will become. Hint, it is already a time-waster, but does not let you play scrabulous, but spamulous... <a href="http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=333">http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=333</a><br /><br />P.S. I need a hair cut.<br clear="all" />Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13963339044158802317noreply@blogger.com0